


She Sells Sea Shells

by Gammarad



Category: Die sechs Schwäne | The Six Swans, Hamster Princess Series - Ursula Vernon
Genre: Gen, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-26 02:32:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17133395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad
Summary: Harriet and Mumfrey find a mysteriously beached pirate ship.





	She Sells Sea Shells

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_rck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/gifts).



> Inspired by the Grimm fairy tale "The Six Swans" and this post on tor.com: Saving the Day with Sewing and Flowers by Mari Ness

The weasel pirates had long been a scourge of the sea, but now they were stuck on shore. Their clipper ship _Clippy_ seemed to have no crew, but as she approached at sunset one evening, Princess Harriet Hamsterbone saw six pigeons fly around its masts and settle down to roost in the crows' nest lookout near the top. She was sure they were pigeons, not crows, but that's where they went anyway.

Harriet decided to see if she could find anything out from the sole weasel pirate she spotted sitting cross-legged near the jetty, a pile of cloth on her lap. 

“What’s going on?” Harriet asked.

The weasel was busy sewing a shirt. “I’m sewing a shirt,” she said, sounding testy. “Can’t you see?”

“Why are you sewing a shirt?” Harriet asked.

“Since my brothers were all cursed and turned into pigeons, we haven’t got enough crew to sail, so we can’t attack and loot other ships, so we have nothing to bring to market to sell. And the curse supposedly will be lifted if I get good enough at making shirts to make them out of stinging nettles… so I’m practicing and making things to sell at the same time.” She held up the finished pirate style shirt.

The pirate shirt was well made, Harriet thought. She might want to buy one herself. “You’re already good,” Harriet said.

“Not good enough to make it out of nettles,” the weasel said with a sigh. “They’re very hard to work with.”

“The curse said the shirts had to be made out of stinging nettles?” Harriet asked curiously.

“The witch said my brothers would only turn back into weasels if shirts of the stinging nettle, hand-made by their sister, were put on them while they slept. They wake up at dawn.” 

“I see,” Harriet said. “And your ship there, it’s called _Clippy_? Is that really a pirate ship name?”

“My youngest brother named our clipper that when he was still very young,” the weasel said, with a look of mild embarrassment. "It wouldn't have been _my_ first choice."

“What if you choose a new name? The name _Stinging Nettle_ sounds very piratish to me.”

Mumfrey, Harriet’s quail steed, said “Qwerk qwerk,” which means “it sounds piratish to me, too” in Quail.

“I suppose it does,” admitted the pirate.

“And then you can use a stinging nettle logo on your shirts, the symbol of your ship, and put it on the tag at the back of the neck.” 

“A tag at the back of the neck! What a great idea.” The weasel pirate seemed taken with the notion.

“And then you can put the shirts on your brothers while they sleep, and maybe it’ll work. It’s at least worth a try. Because shirts hand made by you that are of the Stinging Nettle ship seem to me like they fit the curse just fine.”

“Qwerk,” Mumfrey agreed.

That night, the pirate made five shirts, each with a _Stinging Nettle_ label at the back of the collar, but she had six brothers. Dawn was coming, and the birds would wake up. 

Harriet was impatient, and wanted to see the curse lifted, but didn't want to wait another day. So the hamster helped a little with one of the sleeves of the sixth shirt, and so they managed to finish shirt number six with just enough time before dawn to test out Harriet's idea. The weasel girl climbed the mast and put a shirt on each of the pigeons that had been her brothers.

As soon as the sun rose, all six woke up and turned back into weasels! Except the brother whose shirt had some of Harriet’s stitches in it had one of his forepaws still a wing. “Oops,” said Harriet to the ex-pigeons’ sister. “I suppose the witch meant it about your hands making it.” 

“That’s all right,” said the weasel with the wing. “I kind of like it.” He waved the wing around. “It’ll be great on hot days to keep myself cool with.”

“At least eleven/twelfths of their wings are turned back,” Harriet told the pirate who’d made the shirts.

“Thank you for your help,” she replied. “Is there anything we can do for you in return?”

Harriet thought about it. She didn’t really like the idea of them going back to robbing other people’s ships because of her help. It would make her feel like she shouldn’t have helped them after all. “You all should stop robbing other ships and just go into clothing making and sales,” Harriet said. 

The weasel tailor agreed. “I’ve actually made more money by sewing things to sell than my share of the plunder ever came to,” she told her brothers. 

“And I could make eye patches,” her eldest brother said. “And belts. I’ve always liked leatherworking.” 

“And boots,” the next to youngest said. “You could make boots too?” 

“I don’t feel like it, but I’ll teach you how,” the eldest brother told him.

After some back and forth, the whole pirate weasel family decided to make pirate souvenir items to sell instead of robbing, and had a wonderful time discussing all their plans. 

Harriet felt satisfied with her day’s -- actually, night's -- work. "Time for some cliff-diving to celebrate," she told her quail.

"Qwerk."


End file.
